Coupons Alone Don't Make the Cut

From the Miami Herald (FL).

"I wrote a column last year about why using coupons may not pay, especially for small households like mine that don’t eat a lot of processed food. Then I decided to give it another try.

If the shoppers profiled on TLC’s Extreme Couponing can get hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for $25, I figured, can’t I save something by using coupons?

Here’s what I’ve found:

• Shopping grocery sales still yields far more savings than using coupons. Sales come in cycles, so watch the products you buy often and stock up when they’re on sale so you never have to pay full price.

• Perennial sale — and coupon — items include salad dressing, salsa, pasta sauce and cereal.

• Holding on to coupons for several weeks after they come out can be profitable. Many of the items will be on sale in about four weeks. (You can use two coupons on Publix buy-one-get-one-free items.)

• There are always coupons for some items, so you might as well use them, even if the savings are small. I often buy Yoplait yogurt, Nature Valley granola bars, canned tomatoes and various Procter & Gamble products, all of which offer coupons. Add up 75 cents here and 35 cents there, and soon you’re talking real money.

• Buying store brands of toiletries or toiletries on sale often, but not always, yields more savings than using coupons for name-brand products.

The people on Extreme Couponing do things I never would, such as spending six hours a week grocery shopping and filling whole rooms with stockpiles of food. (Clearly they don’t have the bugs we do.) I don’t see any sense in stockpiling 30 years’ worth of deodorant, even if you get it free. Space is worth money, too.

The bottom line: On my most recent shopping trip, I spent $108.57, after $37.77 in store savings and $7.35 in coupons."

Give it up completely--that's my take. You can do much better sticking with basic ingredients and basic foods, buying at price per unit, and WATCHING THAT EXPIRATION DATE!

Every week, I save anywhere from 25-50% at my health food store just by being a member, using case discounts, buying basic ingredients, and using cost per unit--no coupons involved. They don't make coupons for fresh produce, grass-fed meat (unprocessed), or organic eggs from a farm in the next county. They also don't make coupons for 25- and 50-lb. bags of stuff.

Coupons are mostly for processed foods, unnecessary items, and/or stuff that isn't selling well on it's own--a red flag if I ever saw one! Just once, JUST ONCE I'd like to see a coupon for broccoli, collards, romaine lettuce, or carrots that didn't require them to be pre-packaged or processed in some way--just to use on them as they lie in the produce section shelf, with only a thin open plastic bag for packaging.